Which Produces Anxiety

The second thought: constant terrifying reminders produce unrelenting anxiety in each of us.
On our own, we can do nothing to stop the onslaught of death, disease and destruction that surrounds us and the ones we love. Becker says,

This is the terror: to have emerged from nothing, to have a name, consciousness of self, deep inner feelings, an excruciating inner yearning for life and self-expression - and with all this yet to die.

Paul may have experienced this anxiety when he prayed for deliverance from "the thorn in his side"  (2 Corinthians 12:1-10). You can feel his anxiety. Here is the former Saul, favorite student of one of the greatest teachers of Israel; persecutor of churches; restored to his true calling and the one now driving the explosion of churches across Asia Minor. He has been a party to miracles and other heightened experiential phenomena. Yet he suffers something so terrifying he cannot even name it.

Jesus certainly experienced this anxiety at Gethsemane facing the hour of His greatest glory and His greatest trial. The coming trial was so terrifying He begged God to be delivered from it. His anxiety level in the garden was extreme. He either sweated so profusely it looked like He had opened a vein, or He actually sweated drops of blood (Luke 22:39-44).

Anxiety over the constant terrifying reminders is not limited to the Son of Man and the saints of the early church. We all are limited from time to time by the "thorn in the side" and we face situations involving death that are so difficult we feel that we cannot go further. I have heard it likened to being on the edge of a cliff and knowing that you have to step off but not being able to move.